Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-10-19

period when no one knew what a day
might bring forth were very i'll adapted
for sincere love-making, and that any
thing in the shape of man could have
made love to Ellen Sunderland
insincerely it would take a pretty
bitter cynic to believe. But
we were together none the less; together
when the tree shadows crept slowly across
the hot, stll, brown fields as the sun sank
lower and lower toward the mountains
SUBMITS; together in the stiffness and
loneliness of the moss-grown aisles of the
woods; in the noontide heat; together
when the big round harvest moon hung
still and shimmering like great shield of
gold balanced against the black velvet
wall of the autumn night universe. What
we said and what we did and what we
thought it matters not. 1t would be to
you very like a chestnut, perhaps, TO
dwell upon it. Every woman knows who
has ever been nineteen; every man re-
members who knew what 1t was to be
twenty-three.
"Wel, one day when / entered the
house | had surprise. l had heard
rumors OF there being a wounded Con-
federate officer in hiding at the Sunder-
lands. l had paid no attention to them,
foundation. But on this day, entering the
honse as usual without knocking,
opened the door of the reception room or
parlor, the first door on the right-hand
side of the hall, which ran through the
house There was large fireplace in this
room on the side opposite the door. AS
stepped in saw an easy chair high
backed, in front of this fire. was Instant
lv conscious in some way-for | certainly
saw nothing of him-that a man, and a
stranger, was sitting in that chair. 1 did
not attempt to see any mora. | stepped
out, closed the door, and quietly took a
chair in the sitting-room opposite. In a
moment or two the eldest daughter came
in hurriedly, pale and agitated.
"'Mr. -" she gasped, Did you go into
the other room?'
"'I did, said /.
"'Did YOU see anybody'
"I did uot,' l answered, very quietly.
She looked me squarely in the eve. l
looked squarely back. She bowed and,
apparently relieved, passed out
And then, with the same question on
her lips, Ellen came in, ignorant of what
had occurred. She was very grave, almost
sad. She asked me the same question in a
low, an appealing tone. / did not like
asked if had penetrated the mysterious
apartment ] asked, shaking my head:
"'And why? Is there any thing in this
house to conceal!'
THE eldest sister, who had returned,
shook her head in denial. IL was no won-
der He was her husband, / suppose. I
looked at Ellen and Addie. They looked
away. They never looked as lovely, at
least to me. For they would not tell lie
and they trusted me.
"Well, heard no more of the stranger,
and things ran on as before for week or
two. Then there came repeated rumors of
the guerrillas in the neghborhood and we
began to take extra precautions. | con-
tinued to call daily at the Sunderlands,
aud one afternoon as / was going away
Ellen seemed particularly ill at ease She
was nervous, hesitating and altogether
unlike herself. / said good-by to her at
the porch and went out to my horse. AS
l was about to mount she came out of the
house toward me bearing a long, rich
crimson, silk scarf, with fine tassels OF
white SIX at either end. She held it out
to me, saying:
win you wear this-for me?'
/" Il can not rob you,' 1 said. Outs'Ga .;
the guitar, believe it was the only thin
Of any value that she had left in Tho
world.
please wear it, she said. And Will,
hesitated, she deftly put it around my
neck, and before l suspected had put hel
arms around, too, and had kissed IN,
squarely on the lips. AS looked at hel.
quite staggered, in an altogether happy
state of surprise, the tears sprang to hel
eyes, she turned away and went hastily
into the house,
Il rode down the road slowly. Her con
duct was so strange, the memory of thai
kiss, the first and last she ever gave me
was so tenacious that it drove every thfne
else out of my mind. My rein fell upon my
horses neck, and il there had been hos
tile sharpshooter anywhere about would
have been an easy prey. had five men
with me, but they had gone farther up the
road, and did not wait for them. rod,
thoughtfully along during most of the way
for four miles. Finally l approached 'Tht
Cap the place of which spoke, the dark
est and most secluded section of the whole
distance
"As entered it Ibeard some one calling
behind me. In little while / recognized
Josh, my negro cook, who had been visit
ing some plantation. He was afraid.
suppose, and wanted protection, though
he made some other excuse for calling.
reined up in the shade of a big fir by .
white fallen trunk in The Gap and waited
for him; waited, perhaps, five minutes
| sat twisting the tassels of the scarf and
thinking of Ellen. l was an easy mark n,
! sat there, dead shot for a man in hid
ing who had ever looked along q gun bar.
rel.
''Then, with Josh a short distance be
hind, l journeyed onward. / stopped at 3
plantation some miles farther down and
waited for my men. They did not come
went back to camp, got a detachment
and went out TO look for them. We fount
them ell in The Gap.' They lay in thu
road in the shadow of the big fir. by tb,
white fallen trunk, riddled with bullet,
from guerilla ambush, and had beer
shot dead from their saddles not ten min
utes after passed the spot"
There was silence for some minutes a:
the listeners gathered his meaning
Finally one suggested:
You probably kept that scarf?n
We'll, rather. 1t saved my life to q
certainty. never saw her again, for our
orders took us away that day. But
The COInmander-in-Chie by slow anG
deliberate puffs, relighted his extinguish.
ed cigar CHICAGO Herald.
|
AT wedding dinner.-The bride seems
pensiye-"Are you already thinking OF
divorce, :.py dear!" SKIS the groom jocu.